Under the terms of the policy, district employees “must refrain from social media use that interferes, disrupts or undermines the effective operation of the school district; is used to engage in harassing, defamatory, obscene, abusive, discriminatory or threatening or similarly inappropriate communications; creates a hostile work environment; breaches confidentiality obligations of school district employees; violates the law, board policies, and/or other school rules and regulations.”

This series of standards serves as a general framework for the rest of the new guidelines, which include a series of more specific measures concerning educationally-focused social media activity and the personal online presences of employees.

Among other directives, employees are required to “maintain appropriate professional boundaries with students, parents and colleagues,” not reference school or district activity “in a manner that could be reasonably construed as an official school district communication” without clarifying that it is a personal opinion and comply with board policies regarding confidential student information.

The district also reserves the right to monitor “all employee use of district computers and other electronic devices” in the policy, a power which extends, through the district’s “Acceptable Use Policy,” to all traffic that utilizes its established internet network.

Failing to abide by the policy “may lead to discipline up to an including termination of employment consistent with state and federal law.”

Administrators will go over the terms of the new arrangement with employees in the coming weeks, officials said. Board Vice Chairwoman Jessica Richardson said it is important to break down this change for employees, as it represents a fundamental change in the district’s consideration of this aspect of modern life.

“This policy represents, in my opinion, sort of a drastic shift in the area — that this allows district oversight of the personal social media accounts of the employees,” said Richardson. “That’s something that has not happened, and people need to be aware of (it).”